After the events of last night, Mitsuru told me that we would be holding a funeral but I refused. I told her that Ken was still alive somewhere and that I would certainly find him and that she would just give me some time until the full moon which is next week.
Mitsuru and everyone agreed. After we went to the dorm, we all looked into the letters that Ken left for us. When we retrieved them, we all decided to give ourselves some time and space until we can get ourselves back up.
'Minako, if you're reading this, I suppose I've already told you what happened. Also, I'm sorry if my room was messy. I didn't have time to clean up.'
'I hope you're not grieving for me or anything like that... Though I'd be lying if I said that I didn't want you to miss me. I wanted all of you guys to finally live in a world that's free of The Fall... I honestly don't think I'll have any regrets if it's like this, but I sure wish I had gone on a few dates with you.'
'Sorry it took me a while to find out a method. I tried researching for more but I kept thinking about you every second. If I told you about this then you surely wouldn't agree so I selfishly did things on my own. The reason why I did this was to show you and everyone else out there... even myself, that I love you more than anything else.'
"'Even more so than my own life...' Ken..." I'm not even sure how many times I've flipped open the worn folded letter and when I even managed to memorize every single letter and punctuation mark there is...
I fold back the paper and gently put it back in its neat light orange envelope which has the words: 'To: My most important person' efficiently written at the back.
I take one final look at the letter before I placed it beside the 10 remembrances carefully lined up on my desk.
Charred screw, two manicure bottles, headphones, money pouch, lighter, persimmon fruit, rabbit doll, pig keyholder, and of course, the featherman keychain.
There's ten of them all in all.
I fiddle around with the items absent mindedly.
'When I disappear, and my remembrance is left, I want you to give all those 10 remembrances to Elizabeth. She'll know what to do.'
'My soul will be lost until the end of time.'
"Until the end of time... There isn't even an end to time. It's forever, isn't it? Even if I die and get reincarnated a billion times, I'll never meet you ever again, will I? You wasted your eternity all for me..."
I was supposed to use my own but now I'm hesitating. If I still do that then what happens...?
"Master Minako," There was a voice from behind me. I didn't even need to turn around to find out who it was. "My master is calling for you."
'How long was he there? Did he hear me?' I wish those thoughts were the ones occupying my brain instead of Ken. Even if Theo is here right now, I don't really care.
"Theo... All right." I get up from my chair and Theo escorts me to the Velvet Room.
When we arrived at the door from Paulownia Mall's narrow alley, Theo opened the door and we entered.
In the same designed Velvet Room, at the same spot with the same face, Igor merely sat on his chair.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room. This place exists between dream and reality. Mind and matter." And of course, greeted me with the same old shibboleth.
I made my way towards Igor and merely stood in front of him. Chin held up high and my back straightened out while Theo stood erect at Igor's left.
"It's extremely rare for you to call on out on people. Why did you call me?" I went straight to my business. No happy talk, no 'Why did you kill him?!'. I just wanted to leave as soon as possible as the air around this room already disgusts me.
He said before that he would always watch over and help us in anyway possible and yet... he...!
Igor shifted his eyes towards the tarot cards laid out on the velvet clothed table. "As proof of one's life, there exists death. This proof exists as a flame, painfully burning one's life away. Yet though a life crumbles to dust, time moves ever onward. He who had been your proof, your life itself...The answer has been lost, never to be found again." And then he looks up at me. "Do you conceivably have a conception towards who or what I may be referring to? If so, then please do partake on this."
He's definitely talking about Ken and I.
"My answer... True... It might really be lost now that my life is gone..." Ken disappeared. Now I can't continue on or have a goal in my life. What am I supposed to do?
Igor chuckled. "The Masque of the Red Death. Are you aware of that novelette?"
The Masque of The Red Death... umm... Where have I heard of that before...
'All right, class. Today, we're going to learn about Edgar Allan Poe's short story, The Masque of the Red Death along with Annabel Lee. These two are famous for their eerie feeling and-'
That's right. Not too long ago, Ms. Toriumi was telling us about how she had mixed feelings about Edgar.
If I could remember...
"It's a story about a wealthy but recreant prince who shut himself and other wealthy people inside his mansion away from the deadly disease known as the Red Death. He locked everyone away within that mansion. No one could possibly get in nor out since even the gates were bolted shut. One day, he held a party, I think. Then he talked about the interior designing of the mansion. He gave much care about how there were 7 rooms lined up in the order of these colors: blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet and the last was black and red. The very last room was a room that many people feared. It had an eerie feeling about its choice of design and color. And at every hour, a huge ebony clock in that room would heavily ring. It would stop everyone and everything from their current state and bring in them fear and awkwardness but after the last echo of that clock, everyone would go back to what they were normally doing. Everyone feared that room and the clock that rang at the struck of every hour." I briefly explain.
"Then there was this man who came in during the party. He was wearing a cloth that was as black as ebony and a horrid mask. Everyone was scared of him as that man showed symptoms of the Red Death. His 'face' showed just as much. The prince was very angry and ordered the guards to chase after him but everyone didn't move for they were afraid of the Red Death. The masked man walked freely around and made his way through the 7 connected rooms. The prince was absolutely furious and ran after the man. They passed the blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet and finally stopped at the last room. The black and red room that nobody dared to enter. The masked man stopped there and the prince caught up to him but suddenly, the prince suddenly screamed in agony, immediately died and fell to the ground. Because of some wild courage they got from despair, the guests and the guards followed afterwards. They also wanted the man to be unmasked and beheaded. When they all finally reached the black and red door, they unmasked the man and saw no tangible form. The cloth fell down and revealed nothing. One by one, everyone died. By that time, everyone had finally acknowledged the Red Death. They had realized that the darkness, decay and the Red Death had won. They were pathetic. They used their wealth to hide within their locked walls, only to find that once the sickness sets in, they can never get out." Well, that's how I understood the story, at least.
"Precisely. Isn't it peculiar for the 7 rooms to be so detailed? Why is that?" Igor asked.
He's right. I do have an idea about it but...
"I think the 7 rooms suggested the stages of life? Blue being the start and black and red being the end. That's why the wealthy and cowards easily died because they thought that killing, ignorance and money could solve everything? I dunno. That's what I thin-Hey, it's a butterfly!!" I see a blue butterfly pass by me and hovered in front of one of the many doors in the Velvet Room.
How could there be a butterfly in here...?
"I see." He snapped his gloved fingers.
"Oh, excuse me." Theo moved and stepped out of this room through a door at his left.
"Please. Follow me." Igor stood up and I followed him in front of a door at the right side of this room where the butterfly was hovering.
We stood there for a few moments and the butterfly flutters away somewhere.
"Would you like to open it?" Igor looks at me. Rather than asking me, it feels like he's forcing me to open it.
"Umm... okay." I slowly open the door and went inside with Igor.
Before I looked at where I was, two kids suddenly bombarded me and blocked my view.
"Ah, it's master!! Hi, master!!" A little kid with an eyepatch covering the left eye and a braid enthusiastically exclaimed.
"Welcome back!!" Another kid with an eyepatch covering the right eye and twin buns greeted.
They were both wearing blue prison guard outfits and had black and blue hats.
Oh my, these are twins. They're so cute but aren't they a little bit too young to be assistants...?
Don't tell me...
Pedophilia?!
Igor didn't say a word and just walked past them and sat on a chair in front of a table that had the same design as the one in the Velvet Room from before... only that the color of the cloth was purple
I look at the interior designing of the room. It looks like a prison but everything is painted a royal purple.
"Hey, hey, miss!" The braided kid tugged on my jeans. "You're the one who-"
"Hey!!" The bunned kid slaps the twin. "Get back to your position!! Master's going to get angry!"
"Yeesh. Alright, alright." The twins skipped their way and stood at opposites sides of what looks like a prison cell in between.
"What the..." My legs move towards the prison cell.
In the prison cell was a man in black and white striped prison uniform. He had sharp eyes, white skin and black semi-curly hair. The man glared at me while just simple standing and holding onto the black bars of the cell. He looks just about my age.
"Excuse me...?" I made a distance between us. Who knows, he might grab me or something.
"Tsk. What do you want?" He glared at me.
"You know, I've seen a lot of people with big-ass glares in my life but yours takes the cake." I bluntly told him what I was thinking.
"What?" Was his only word.
"Never mind. Who're you? Why are you here? What did you do wrong to be inside of that cell?" I smile at him.
"You are a slave. Wouldn't you want emancipation?" He asked.
Emancipation...? Freedom?
Of course I would but...
Ah, did he break the rules or something?
The man clicks his tongue. "One day, I'm gonna get out of here. And when I do...!"
"Yeah, yeah." The kid with the buns rudely interrupted.
"We get it, we get it. You've been saying that for sooooo long. We're sick of it. All you do is yap." The other kid nagged.
"This guy is feisty..." I back away. "You do look kind of cool though."
"What are you blabberin' on about?!" He snarled.
"No, actually, forget about it." He's kinda rude. Just like a juvenile delinquent.
"Umm..." I turned my head at the side to where Igor calmly sat. "What am I doing here...?"
"Your answer... lies within this space. I would like to ask you to carefully inspect these 4 walls. Once you've found your answer. You may choose which you see fit."
My answer... lies here?
I turn my head back and forth and walked around. I don't really see much of anything in this place. There ain't much to point out.
Then, a laptop comes to my view. There was a laptop at the corner of the room. Is it being used to record prisoners or something?
"What the-WINDOWS 10?!" I fell down when I saw the desktop. There's still no Windows 10 in my...
"Hey, hey, the twins. I have a question. What's the year here?" I look over at the twins and they both answered: "2016."
No way...
This... I get it now.
This is my answer.
"Igor, I have my answers but I'm still not sure yet." I need some more time to think about it.
Igor stood up. "Well then, I will escort you back."
Igor and I went back to the Velvet Room and had Theo escort me outside.
When Theo took me to the outside, I stopped him from entering back to the Velvet Room.
"Hey, I want to thank you and Elizabeth for making me come back into this world." I feel a thump in my heart. "There are many things I'm regretting right now but if I'm able to find my answer then I hope that you will be there to support me."
"Master Minako..." Theo bitterly smiled. I'm figuring he knows what my choice will be. "Of course. You are our dear guest... Well, even if you weren't our guest, then I would still support you whole-heartedly as a friend."
"Theo..." His words bring a smile to my face. "Thank you."
"Well, I'll get going now. Bye." I waved goodbye to him and he silently went back to the Velvet Room.
*3RD PERSON*
"Master?" When Theo went back to the Velvet Room, Igor has disappeared.
"My, he has stepped out without informing me. I guess I should watch those 'shoujo' anime that my sister lent me while my master is still out." Theo hummed his way to a different room.
As for Igor, he was sitting on a chair in a black and red room with another person in front of him.
It was a masked man. He had black hair that was tied into a ponytail and was wearing dark clothes. At the right side of his mask, there was a design of a butterfly.
"I would never have thought that you would do an action such as that." Igor densely said and the man chuckled.
"Even I don't know what had come into myself. Perhaps I could not bear it... Life and existence... I would like to see the path that she would choose."
"Indeed. No matter what the path she may take, we will continue to support her until the end." Igor glanced at the masked man. "Would you agree, master Philemon?"
"Of course. I will continue to watch over everyone, no matter what choice they may comprise with."
*MINAKO*
My answer is time.
Knowing that there will be the year 2016 only means that the world is okay and that the Fall didn't occur. I made a choice in order to save the world.
But right now... What choice am I supposed to choose...?
Will I abide by Ken's will?
Or will I abide by my own will?
-To be continued-
In case y'all didn't know, I made the Velvet Room have some sort of relation with The Masque of The Red Death. I saw in wiki that there might be some fact that the Velvet Room was designed after that short story.
How I summarized the short story probably isn't accurate cause that's based on how I understood it. I read that novelette before so I was really surprised when I saw it!!
Anyway, I made the violet prison as a sign that Minako's journey is at its end.
Cause at the blue Velvet Room, it represents the beginning just like the short story. Violet represented the near end while the black and red room that Igor was in... Well, you'll get it at the following chapters.
And yes, that violet prison room, twin assistants and prisoner is in direct relation to the Persona 5 trailer. I just made their characteristics up based on what I think they're like so yeah. It's not canon or anything. Just a presumption. -u-
In case you didn't know,Philemon is a character from Persona 2. He's a deity who watches over the characters. Even until now. Remember the butterfly in recent Persona games that you played? Yeah, that's him showing that he's still watching over everyone. So now you know. :)
Anyway, what will your choice be?
Will you abide by Ken or abide by Minako? :3
Put a comment or something. Favorite it and as always,
Happy Reading~ ^3^